IPTV is a television delivery platform that relies on a packet-based network infrastructure, e.g., including broadband Internet access networks, to deliver television content to customers, typically as an alternative to traditional over-the-air broadcast, satellite and cable modalities. A typical IPTV solution will include five major areas: (1) head-end video acquisition equipment for receiving television content; (2) intermediate IPTV facilities (comprising, for example, Microsoft® Mediaroom™) including server platforms and associated IPTV middleware; (3) IP networking devices (e.g., routers, switches and Firewalls) for content distribution between various IPTV nodes; (4) Access nodes comprising, for example, VDSL or xPON equipment to enable high-bandwidth transport to and from the customer premises; and (5) operator-controlled applications which manage the IPTV solution or provide end-user IPTV applications.
As can be appreciated, the cost of entry into the IPTV market can be substantial. As an example, representative startup costs include (on top of the costs of implementing the network and access portions), securing contracts with video content providers, and building and maintaining head-end and intermediate IPTV facilities. Not surprisingly, particularly for smaller operators, the cost of entry can be prohibitively high.
To address this problem, a shared (or “hosted”) IPTV solution has been contemplated, whereby in return for annual service payments or the like, a “master” or “hosting” operator with a deployed IPTV solution shares a portion of its IPTV infrastructure with one or more neighboring (or “hosted”) operators. In one example, the shared IPTV infrastructure might include shared head-end facilities and a shared intermediate IPTV facility including Microsoft® Mediaroom™ server platforms and associated middleware. Thus, the hosted IPTV solution could advantageously enable hosted operators to enter the IPTV market with relatively low entry costs, while allowing the hosting operator to offset the enormous cost of the IPTV deployment with recurring service payments from the hosted operators.
However, to implement such a hosted IPTV solution, there is a need to maintain account information associated with potentially multiple operators, each having multiple subscribers, at the shared intermediate facility; and to support operator interactions with exposed application programming interfaces (APIs) of the shared intermediate facility in a manner that maintains operator and subscriber privacy. The present invention is directed to addressing this need.